Gerald Ford and Related Topics

Ronald Reagan

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American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

Ronald Reagan's boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois

Capt. Ronald Reagan at Fort Roach, 1943 or 1944.

Guest stars for the premiere of The Dick Powell Show, 1961. Reagan can be seen wearing a ten-gallon hat on the far left.

Reagan testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, October 1947

Reagan and his first wife Jane Wyman, 1942

Wedding of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, 1952. Matron of honor Brenda Marshall (left) and best man William Holden (right) were the sole guests.

Nancy and Ronald Reagan aboard a boat in California, 1964

The Reagans meet with President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, July 1970

Reagan and President Ford shake hands on the podium after Reagan narrowly lost the nomination at the 1976 Republican National Convention

Ronald Reagan, moderator Jon Breen, and Bush participate in the Nashua, New Hampshire presidential debate, 1980

President and Mrs. Reagan at the 1981 inauguration parade

Supreme Court justice-nominee Sandra Day O'Connor talks with Reagan outside the White House, July 15, 1981.

Reagan outlines his plan for Tax Reduction Legislation in a televised address from the Oval Office, July 1981

Reagan addresses Congress on the Program for Economic Recovery, April 28, 1981 (a few weeks after surviving the assassination attempt)

As the first U.S. president invited to speak before the British Parliament (June 8, 1982), Reagan predicted Marxism–Leninism would end up on the "ash heap of history".

Meeting with leaders of the Afghan Mujahideen in the Oval Office, 1983

Reagan with actress Sigourney Weaver and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 1985. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia supplied money and arms to the anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan.

Reagan (far left) and First Lady Nancy Reagan pay their respects to the 17 American victims of the April 18 attack on the U.S. embassy by Hezbollah in Beirut, 1983

1984 presidential electoral votes by state. Reagan (red) won every state except Mondale's home state of Minnesota; Mondale also carried the District of Columbia.

Reagan is sworn in for a second term as president by Chief Justice Burger in the Capitol rotunda

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (here with Reagan in 1986) granted the U.S. use of British airbases to launch the Libya attack.

Reagan (center) receives the Tower Commission Report regarding the Iran-Contra affair in the Cabinet Room with John Tower (left) and Edmund Muskie (right)

Challenging Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987

Gorbachev and Reagan sign the INF Treaty at the White House, December 1987

The Reagans with a model of USS Ronald Reagan, May 1996

Reagan lying in state in the Capitol rotunda

A bronze statue of Reagan standing in the National Statuary Hall Collection

President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev, 1985

Approval ratings for President Reagan (Gallup)

Former President Reagan returns to the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush, 1993

{{circa}} 1916–17. Pictured from left: Father Jack, older brother Neil, Reagan (with "Dutchboy" haircut), and mother Nelle

1920s. As a teenager, in Dixon, Illinois

{{circa|lk=no|1960}}. Hosting General Electric Theater

After failed presidential bids in 1968 and 1976, challenging and nearly defeating sitting president Gerald Ford in the latter's Republican primaries, Reagan easily won the Republican nomination in the 1980 presidential election and went on to defeat incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter

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American former politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

The Carter family store (part of Carter's Boyhood Farm) in Plains, Georgia

Carter with Rosalynn Smith and his mother at his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy on June 5, 1946

President Jimmy Carter, his wife and Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN (wearing tie) aboard the submarine USS Los Angeles (SSN-688) in 1977

Results of the 1970 gubernatorial election in Georgia, with blue counties supporting Carter and red ones voting for Hal Suit: the relative darkness of the shade shows greater support for a candidate.

Carter's official portrait as Governor of Georgia

Jimmy Carter's campaign button announcing his campaign with the slogan, "My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for President."

Carter and President Gerald Ford debating at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

Image of President Carter displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC. Portrait by Robert Templeton.

Newly elected governor of Arkansas and future president Bill Clinton meets with President Carter in 1978.

Carter signing the Airline Deregulation Act, 1978

Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin meet on the Aspen Lodge patio of Camp David on September 6, 1978.

First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere, and Carter, 1977

Carter with Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo on April 1, 1978

Carter with King Hussein of Jordan and Shah of Iran in 1977

Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signing the SALT II treaty at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, June 18, 1979

Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Zbigniew Brzezinski in September 1978

King Khalid of Saudi Arabia and Carter, October 1978

Countries visited by Carter during his presidency

Carter (third from left) with Martti Ahtisaari, William Hague, and Lakhdar Brahimi from The Elders group in London, July 24, 2013.

The state funeral of George H. W. Bush in December 2018. Carter and his wife Rosalynn can be seen on the far right of the photograph.

Carter with Justice Harry Blackmun, known for his Roe v. Wade majority opinion authorship

Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran, holds Jimmy Carter IV while Rosalynn Carter, Caron Carter and Chip Carter watch, January 1978.

James Earl Carter Presidential Statue by Frederick Hart (1994)

alt=Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton standing next to each other.|Carter (right), walks with, from left, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton during the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 18, 2004

alt=Carter sitting in front of the U.S. flag|Carter during a Google Hangout session held during the LBJ Presidential Library Civil Rights Summit in 2014

alt=Carter, Obama, and Clinton standing together.|Carter (right) with President Barack Obama (center) and Bill Clinton (left) on August 28, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington

alt=Carter observing a model replica of the USS Jimmy Carter, named after him.|Carter (left) with a replica of the {{USS|Jimmy Carter|SSN-23|6}} with Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton (right) at a naming ceremony, April 28, 1998

alt=The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum during the daytime.|Jimmy Carter Library and Museum located in Atlanta, Georgia

Carter standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, during his 1979 visit

In the 1976 presidential election, Carter ran as an outsider and narrowly defeated incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford.

George H. W. Bush

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American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

George H. W. Bush at his grandfather's house in Kennebunkport, c. 1925

Bush in his Grumman TBF Avenger aboard USS San Jacinto in 1944

Bush in Phillips Academy's 1942 yearbook

Bush, top right, stood with his wife and children, mid-1960s

Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower with Bush

Bush greeting then California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1967

Bush as ambassador to the United Nations, 1971

Bush, as CIA Director, listens at a meeting following the assassinations in Beirut of Francis E. Meloy Jr. and Robert O. Waring, 1976

The Reagan–Bush ticket won the 1980 presidential election with 50.7% of the popular vote and a large majority of the electoral vote

Official portrait of Vice President Bush, 1981

Reagan and Bush in a meeting to discuss the United States' invasion of Grenada with a group of bipartisan members of Congress in October 1983

Vice President Bush standing with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the New York City waterfront in 1988

John Ashcroft and Vice President Bush campaign in St. Louis, Missouri, 1988

Bush won the 1988 presidential election with 53.4% of the popular vote and a large majority of the electoral vote

Chief Justice William Rehnquist administers the Presidential Oath of Office to George H. W. Bush

Map showing the division of East and West Germany until 1990, with Berlin in yellow

Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev at the Helsinki Summit in 1990

In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into fifteen independent republics, including Russia (labeled 11)

Iraq (green) invaded Kuwait (orange) in 1990

Bush meets with Robert Gates, General Colin Powell, Secretary Dick Cheney and others about the situation in the Persian Gulf, 1991

From left to right: (standing) President Carlos Salinas, President Bush, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; (seated) Jaime Serra Puche, Carla Hills, and Michael Wilson at the NAFTA Initialing Ceremony, October 1992

Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991

Bush's approval ratings (red) compared to his disapproval ratings (blue) during his presidency

Bush was defeated in the 1992 presidential election by Bill Clinton

President Bill Clinton meeting with former presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter at the White House in September 1993

From left to right: George H. W. Bush, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter

Members of the public pay their respects at the casket of George H. W. Bush lying in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Bush visits NAS JRB during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, 2005

The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the west campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, 2011

In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him as the [[List of ambassadors of the United States to China#List of Chiefs of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing|Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China]], and in 1976 Bush became the Director of Central Intelligence.

Richard Nixon

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The 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974.

Nixon (second from right) makes his newspaper debut in 1916, contributing five cents to a fund for war orphans. His brother Donald is to his right.

Nixon's family: Julie and David Eisenhower, President Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, Tricia and Edward Cox (December 24, 1971)

Lieutenant Commander Richard Nixon, United States Navy (circa 1945)

Nixon campaigns in Sausalito, California, 1950

Front cover of literature for the Eisenhower–Nixon campaign, 1952

Nikita Khrushchev and Nixon speak as the press looks on at the Kitchen Debate, July 24, 1959

John F. Kennedy and Nixon before their first televised 1960 debate

Nixon and Lyndon Johnson leave the White House for the Kennedy–Johnson inauguration

Nixon shows his papers to an East German officer to cross between the sectors of the divided City of Berlin, 1963

Nixon and Johnson meet at the White House before Nixon's nomination, July 1968

1968 electoral vote results; the popular vote between Nixon and Humphrey was less than one percentage point apart

Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The new First Lady, Pat, holds the family Bible.

Nixon delivers an address to the nation about the incursion in Cambodia

Nixon visits American troops in South Vietnam, July 30, 1969

Nixon with Mexican president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (to his right); motorcade in San Diego, California, September 1970

Nixon with Brezhnev during the Soviet leader's trip to the U.S., 1973

Nixon with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, June 1974

Nixon at the Washington Senators' 1969 Opening Day with team owner Bob Short (arms folded) and Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (hand on mouth). Nixon's aide, Major Jack Brennan, sits behind them in uniform.

Nixon gives 1971 State of the Union Address

Official Nixon portrait by James Anthony Wills, c. 1984

Graph of increases in U.S. incarceration rate

Nixon visiting the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet

Nixon takes questions at 1973 press conference

Demonstrator demands impeachment, October 1973

Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of the Watergate tapes, April 29, 1974

Nixon's farewell speech to the White House staff, August 9, 1974

President Ford announcing his decision to pardon Nixon, September 8, 1974, in the Oval Office

President Jimmy Carter and ex-Presidents Gerald Ford and Nixon meet at the White House before former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's funeral, 1978

Nixon speaking with Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the White House, 1979

President Ronald Reagan meets with his three immediate predecessors, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Nixon at the White House, October 1981; the three former presidents would represent the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Nixon with President Bill Clinton in the residence of the White House, March 1993

Five U.S. presidents (including then-incumbent President Bill Clinton) and their wives attending the funeral of Richard Nixon, April 27, 1994

The graves of President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon

Richard Nixon's Presidential Library and Museum located in Yorba Linda, California

With Elvis Presley in December 1970: "The President & The King"

Presidents Gerald Ford, Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter in 1991

Campaign button ironically emphasizing the personality and public image assessments discussed in this section

Nixon with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, June 1974.

Afterwards, he was issued a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford.

During the break-in, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy remained in contact with each other and with the burglars by radio. These Chapstick tubes outfitted with tiny microphones were later discovered in Hunt's White House office safe.

Watergate scandal

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Major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation.

Transistor radio used in the Watergate break-in

Walkie-talkie used in Watergate break-in

DNC filing cabinet from the Watergate office building, damaged by the burglars

Address book of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker, discovered in a room at the Watergate Hotel, June 18, 1972

Garage in Rosslyn where Woodward and Felt met. Also visible is the historical marker erected by the county to note its significance.

Minority counsel Fred Thompson, ranking member Howard Baker, and chair Sam Ervin of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973

President Nixon explaining release of edited transcripts, April 29, 1974

House Judiciary Committee members and staff, 1974

Nixon's resignation letter, August 9, 1974. Pursuant to federal law, the letter was addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. When Kissinger initialed the letter at 11:35 a.m., Ford officially became president.

Oliver F. Atkins' photo of Nixon leaving the White House shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974

Oliver F. Atkins' photo of Nixon leaving the White House on Marine One shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974

Pen used by President Gerald R. Ford to pardon Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974

One of a variety of anti-Ford buttons generated during the 1976 presidential election: it reads "Gerald ... Pardon me!" and depicts a thief cracking a safe labeled "Watergate".

On September 8, 1974, Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him.

1976 United States presidential election

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The 48th quadrennial presidential election.

A Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale campaign poster.

First ballot vote for the presidential nomination by state delegations

The 1976 Republican National Convention at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Vice Presidential nominee Bob Dole is on the far left, then Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan is at the center shaking hands with President Gerald Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller is just to the right of Ford, followed by Susan Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.

Gerald Ford (right) watching election returns with Joe Garagiola on election night in 1976. Garagiola is reacting to television reports that Ford had just been projected as having lost Texas to Carter.

A campaign button from election eve where Carter and Mondale spent the evening in Flint Michigan at a rally It is notable as only a handful of counties in Michigan went to Carter in 1976, and no surrounding counties where Carter held the rally went to him.

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford from Michigan by a narrow victory of 297 electoral college votes to Ford's 240.

Vice President of the United States

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Second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession.

John Adams, the first vice president of the United States

Though prominent as a Missouri Senator, Harry Truman had been vice president only three months when he became president; he was never informed of Franklin Roosevelt's war or postwar policies while vice president.

1888 illustration of John Tyler receiving the news of President William Henry Harrison's death from Chief Clerk of the State Department Fletcher Webster

Then-Vice President Joe Biden meets with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, 2010

Geraldine Ferraro speaks at the 1984 Democratic National Convention following her selection as the party's vice presidential nominee

Map of the United States showing the number of electoral votes allocated following the 2010 census to each state and the District of Columbia for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections; it also notes that Maine and Nebraska distribute electors by way of the Congressional District Method. 270 electoral votes are required for a majority out of 538 votes possible.

Four vice presidents: (from left) outgoing president Lyndon B. Johnson (the 37th vice president), incoming president Richard Nixon (36th), (Everett Dirksen administering oath), incoming vice president Spiro Agnew (39th), and outgoing vice president Hubert Humphrey (38th), January 20, 1969

(Left to right) President Richard Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, Betty Ford and Congressman Gerald Ford after President Nixon nominated Congressman Ford to be vice president, October 13, 1973

{{center|Dan Quayle (1989–1993) Age {{age|1947|2|4}}}}

{{center|Al Gore (1993–2001) Age {{age|1948|3|31}}}}

{{center|Dick Cheney (2001–2009) Age {{age|1941|1|30}}}}

{{center|Joe Biden (2009–2017) Age {{age|1942|11|20}}}}

{{center|Mike Pence (2017–2021) Age {{age|1959|6|7}}}}

Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, who were each appointed to the office under the terms of the 25th Amendment, were inaugurated in the House and Senate chambers respectively.

Democratic Party (United States)

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One of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States (1829–1837) and the first Democratic president.

Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States (1837–1841) and the second Democratic president.

The 1885 inauguration of Grover Cleveland, the only president with non-consecutive terms

Leaders of the Democratic Party during the first half of the 20th century on 14 June 1913: Secretary of State William J. Bryan, Josephus Daniels, President Woodrow Wilson, Breckinridge Long, William Phillips, and Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, 32nd and 33rd presidents of the United States (1933–1945; 1945–1953), featured on a campaign poster for the 1944 presidential election

John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, 35th and 36th presidents of the United States (1961–1963, 1963–1969)

Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States (1977–1981), delivering the State of the Union Address in 1979

Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), at The Pentagon in 1998

Barack Obama speaking to College Democrats of America in 2007

President Barack Obama meeting with the Blue Dog Coalition in the State Dining Room of the White House in 2009

Eleanor Roosevelt at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago

President Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law at the White House on March 23, 2010

Secretary of State John Kerry addressing delegates at the United Nations before signing the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016

Shirley Chisholm was the first major-party African American candidate to run nationwide primary campaigns.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Immigration Act of 1965 as Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and others look on

Then-Senator Barack Obama shaking hands with an American soldier in Basra, Iraq in 2008

President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President Barack Obama at Ben Gurion Airport in 2013

Self-identified Democrats (blue) versus self-identified Republicans (red) (January–June 2010 data)

Higher percentages of Democrats than Republicans are members of union households.

Elected at age 33, Jon Ossoff is currently the youngest member of the U.S. Senate.

Hillary Clinton was the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

Julián Castro served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

U.S. opinion on gun control issues is deeply divided along political lines, as shown in this 2021 survey.

He was succeeded by vice president Gerald Ford, who served a brief tenure.

President of the United States

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Head of state and head of government of the United States of America.

George Washington, the first president of the United States

President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a radio address, 1933

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and others look on

President Donald Trump delivers his 2018 State of the Union Address, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan

President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Gorbachev sign the 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord in the White House.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, successfully preserved the Union during the American Civil War.

President Barack Obama with his Supreme Court appointee Justice Sotomayor, 2009

President Ronald Reagan reviews honor guards during a state visit to China, 1984

President Woodrow Wilson throws out the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day, 1916

President Jimmy Carter (left) debates Republican nominee Ronald Reagan on October 28, 1980.

Franklin D. Roosevelt won a record four presidential elections (1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944), leading to the adoption of a two-term limit.

President William McKinley and his successor, Theodore Roosevelt

President Reagan surrounded by Secret Service

From left: George H. W. Bush, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. Photo taken in the Oval Office on January 7, 2009; Obama formally took office thirteen days later.

Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, 2013

The presidential limousine, dubbed "The Beast"

The presidential plane, called Air Force One when the president is on board

Marine One helicopter, when the president is aboard

By 1976, Gerald Ford conceded that "the historic pendulum" had swung toward Congress, raising the possibility of a "disruptive" erosion of his ability to govern.

Republican Party (United States)